TY - JOUR
AU - Kotlikoff,Laurence J.
AU - Shoven,John B.
AU - Spivak,Avia
TI - The Impact of Annuity Insurance on Savings and Inequality
JF - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL - No. 1403
PY - 1984
Y2 - July 1984
DO - 10.3386/w1403
UR - http://www.nber.org/papers/w1403
L1 - http://www.nber.org/papers/w1403.pdf
N1 - Author contact info:
Laurence J. Kotlikoff
Department of Economics
Boston University
270 Bay State Road
Boston, MA 02215
Tel: 617/353-4002
Fax: 617/353-4001
E-Mail: kotlikoff@gmail.com
John B. Shoven
Department of Economics
579 Serra Mall at Galvez Street
Stanford, CA 94305-6015
Tel: 650/723-3273
Fax: 650/723-8611
E-Mail: shoven@stanford.edu
Avia Spivak
AB - This is the first paper to document the effect of health on the migration propensities of African Americans in the American past. Using both IPUMS and the Colored Troops Sample of the Civil War Union Army Data, I estimate the effects of literacy and health on the migration propensities of African Americans from 1870 to 1910. I find that literacy and health shocks were strong predictors of migration and the stock of health was not. There were differential selection propensities based on slave status--former slaves were less likely to migrate given a specific health shock than free blacks. Counterfactuals suggest that as much as 35% of the difference in the mobility patterns of former slaves and free blacks is explained by differences in their human capital, and more than 20% of that difference is due to health alone. Overall, the selection effect of literacy on migration is reduced by one-tenth to one-third once health is controlled for. The low levels of human capital accumulation and rates of mobility for African Americans after the Civil War are partly explained by the poor health status of slaves and their immediate descendants.
ER -